Process and apparatus for drying hair



w. E. GREENLEE 3,444,624

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR May 20, 1969 ors Sheet Filed May29, 1967 INVENTOR. WILFRED E. GREENLEE ATTORNEY May 20, 1969 w: E.GREENLEE I 3,444,624

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR Filed May 29, 1967 FIG.8

INVENTOR.

WILFRED mam-muss BY f M y M FIG."

ATTORNEY y 0, 1969 w. E. GREENLEE 3,444,624

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR Filed May 29, 1967 Sheet 3 of sINVENTOR.

WILFRED E. GREENLEE ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,444,624 PROCESS ANDAPPARATUS FOR DRYING HAIR Wilfred E. Greenlee, 1304 Eastern Parkway,Louisville, Ky. 40204 Filed May 29, 1967, Ser. No. 641,906 Int. Cl. A45d2/36, /00

US. Cl. 343 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Disclose a method andapparatus for drying hair whereby a vacuum pump is used to draw ambientair through segments of wet hair in the form of rolls or pin curls.Discloses additionally, a specially designed roller, cover and a clip aswell as a connecting mechanism for connection to low pressure tubularmembers and a housing whereby the tubular members are slidablyadjustable.

Field 0 the invention This invention relates to a process and apparatusfor drying hair and more particularly to hair dryers utilizing streamsof low pressure to draw ambient air through a mass of wet hair to drysame.

Description of the prior art In the process of setting hair, it has beenthe practice to first shampoo the hair and rinse same. Thereafter, thehair is combed smooth and styled by the placement of various rollers andby the sculpturing of certain of the curls. In order to style the hair,the hair is sectioned on the scalp according to the diameter of theroller. The hair is lifted vertically and then rolled down on its ownbase adjacent the scalp and secured thereto by means of a clip.Thereafter, the hair is dried by placement of the head beneath a dryerdesigned to dry by convection at a temperature of about 100 F. for aboutto minutes. In certain instances, especially with bleached hair or withhair which is brittle or has broken ends, subjecting the hair to thistemperature for this length of time is undesirable. Nevertheless, due tothe fact that bleached hair has had color granules and its protectivecoating removed, such hair tends to absorb more water and thus requiresa drying treatment for this length of time or, in some instances, evenlonger.

It is desirable, therefore, to provide a method and apparatus for dryingthe hair more quickly and at a lower temperature. The broad concept ofapplying tubular members to hair forming devices, such as rollers andclips, to force air through the wet hair on said devices, to dry thehair or cool the scalp is broadly old. See, for example, US. Patent2,110,463 Ferguson; 2,188,924 Rockwood; 2,097,- 808 Zoberg; 3,199,218Bean; 3,241,560 Willat; and 3,265,075 Edam et al. However, theseproposals, insofar as relevant to hair drying, have utilized a forcedair supply, preferably heated.

Since it is necessary to force the air through the hair, it is alsonecessary to utilize specially designed rollers and clamps whereby theair is injected at one end of the roller and is then forced through thehair wound around the roller. The bulky attachment of the tubular memberto one end of the roller places a limitation on the hairdresser in hisplacement of rollers in blocking and spacing. Further, the attachment ofthe roller to the tube is either time consuming or requires complicatedand expensive apparatus.

Summary of the invention Basically, my invention involves a method andan apparatus for achieving the method of drawing ambient air through ashaped segment of wet hair to dry the hair and simultaneously cool thescalp, through the use of a tubular member held in close proximity tothe segment of hair and in communication with a source of low pressure.Apparatus for achieving the method involves specially designed rollersand covers for said rollers and simple and quick methods of connectingsaid covers to the rollers and to the low pressure tubular members.

Still another object of the invention is a specially designedself-aligning connecting mechanism for the hair holding devices and thetubular members which are centrally located so as not to place alimitation on the hairdresser in blocking and sectioning the scalp.

Still another object of this invention is the provision of individuallyadjustable tubular members to allow maximum freedom for the hairdresser.

Still another object of this invention is a specially designed clamp andconnecting means for drying pin curls.

Still another object of this invention is the provision of connectingmeans between the hair holding device and the tubular members which aresimply and quickly connected and disconnected and which are simply andinexpensively manufactured.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is a side elevation partiallydiagrammatic, of the apparatus of my invention in use.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, partially in section, of the housingillustrating the low-pressure chamber, the distribution plate, and therelation of the tubular members to each other in said housing.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on lines 3-3 of FIG. 2,illustrating the structure and relation of one of the hollow cylindricalmembers to the distribution plate and to a tubular member slidablypositioned therein.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the distribution plate taken along lines 44 ofFIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a front elevation of the roller and cover of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the cover taken along lines 66 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an end elevation of the roller taken along lines 7--7 of FIG.5.

FIG. 8 is a front elevation of a modified cover.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a clamp and a connecting piecespecifically designed for pin curls.

FIG. 10 is a bottom plan view of the clamp and connecting piece takenalong lines 1010 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is a view in perspective, illustrating the process of rollingthe hair onto a roller.

FIG. 12 is a view illustrating the special clamp of this invention beingfitted onto a pin curl.

FIG. 13 is a plan view of the top plate of the housing in a modifiedform wherein the cylindrical members are recessed in counterbores in thebottom of the plate and the plate contains arcuate openings around itsperiphery to allow the low pressure to enter the lower chamber of thehousing.

FIG. 14 is a longitudinal sectional view of a modification of theapparatus illustrating a cylindrical member mounted in the counterboreof the plate shown in FIG. 13 and with the tubular member in extendedposition.

FIG. 15 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view, illustrating thegasket of the tubular member in sealing relation with the. ports of thecylindrical member and the tubular member in fully retracted position.

Description of the preferred emb diments Referring now to the drawings,and specifically to FIG. 1, the vacuum pump is connected to vacuum orlow pressure line 2 which runs to housing 3. The tubular members 4 areconnected to the roller assemblies 5 containing the segments of wet hairwound thereon. The housing 3 per so has a vacuum or low pressure inlet 6which enters into the low pressure chamber 7. The low pressure chamberis separated from lower chamber 16 of the housing by the distributionand guide plate 8 containing a series of circular openings 10. Connectedto each of the circular openings 10 is a hollow cylindrical member 11which depends therefrom and passes through guide plate 9 and is securedto base plate 12. Each of the plates 8, 9 and 12 are held in position bytie rod 13 which is secured by nut 14. The outer casing wall 15 ofhousing 3 encloses the entire assembly and is sealed by 0 rings (notshown) around plates 8, 9 and 12. As is best shown in FIG. 3, each ofthe hollow cylindrical members 11 contains a tubular member 4 slidablymounted therein. The tubular member 4 for purposes of description,contains an inner end portion which normally is always inside the hollowcylindrical member 11 and is mounted in lubricated gasket 25. The outerend portion 21 of tubular member 4 is normally outside of the hollowcylindrical member 11 when in use but is some times slidably pushed upinto the cylindrical member 11 when the apparatus is out of use. The endof the tubular member 4 contains a hollow spherical member 24 which fitsinto a socket 40 of cover 34. Loosely positioned above the sphericalmember 24 is an O ring 23 which tends to seal any space between thewalls of socket 40 and the spherical member 24 whenthe apparatus is inuse.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the roller assembly 5 consists of roller whichhas a foraminous body 31 made of mesh wire or other suitable materialformed into a roll. The foraminous body 31 is closed at either end by animperforate end member 32 secured into position by a metal cap whichforms a slight ridge at the point 33 at either end of the roller.

The cover 34, which in cross section is semicircular, contains lateralgripping edges 36 along its axial length. Located close to the ends ofthe roller on the inside are stops 37 which are adapted to register withridge 33 formed by the metal caps holding the imperforate end pieces inposition. Thus, as is shown in FIG. 7 in broken lines, there is formed aspace 38 between the radius of the cover 34 and the roller 30.

Located preferably centrally, relative to the ends of the roller andcover, is a socket 40 containing perforate bottom 41. Ports 42 extendingthrough the perforate bottom and the body of the cover 34 communicatebetween the socket 40 and the space 38 surrounding the roller 30. Thus,there is communication between the tubular member 4 and the ports 42 tothe foraminous roller body 31.

Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, there is illustrated a special clampcontaining a socket member 40 for drying pin curls. In this instance,the clamp 50, which is described in detail in U.S. Patent 2,467,487contains an upper leg 51 and a. lower leg 52. Surrounding the two legsis an elastic member 53 which tends to draw the two legs toward eachother. As will be seen, the upper leg 51 is mounted above the perforatebottom 41 of the socket member while the bifurcated lower leg 52 ismounted below the perforate bottom 41. The ports 42 extending throughthe perforate bottom 41 thus draw air from the area in the center of thecurl into the low pressure tubular member 4 through cylindrical member11 to low pressure chamber 7 onto the vacuum pump. By this means ambientair outside of the pin curl is pulled through the hair and thus driesthe curl and simultaneously cools the scalp.

In the modification of the top plate 70, ilustrated in FIG. 13, insteadof holes 10, as shown in FIG. 4, there are provided a series ofcounterbores 72, into which the hollow cylindrical members 11 aremounted. Around the periphery of the plate are a series of arcuateopenings 71, so that both upper chamber 7 and lower chamber 16 becomelow pressure vacuum chambers. At the top of the wall of each cylindricalmember 11 are a series of ports 73.

Thus, when the tubular member 4 is extended as shown in FIG. 14, theports are open. However, when the tubular member is fully retracted, asshown in FIG. 15, gasket 25 comes into sealing engagement with ports 73thus closing the tubular member from communication with the low pressurezone in chamber 1 6 of the housing.

This allows an operator to utilize only a portion of the total number oftubular members without excessive loss of suction since the retractedmembers are effectively sealed off from the vacuum chambers by means ofgasket 25 in sealing engagement with ports 73. The gasket 60 in baseplate 12, surrounding the cylindrical member 11, eliminates any loss ofthe vacuum at this point.

FIG. 11 illustrates the normal process of rolling the hair onto theroller 30. After the hair is rolled, the cover 34 is fitted over therolled hair so that the stops 37 engage with the hair surrounding ridge33. Thus the hair strands themselves are located in the free space 38between the roller 30 and the cover 34. The tubular member 4 isconnected to the cover 40 merely by inserting the spherical member 24into socket 40 which by means of the low pressure is pulled immediatelyinto position and also pulls O ring 23 into sealing engagement betweenthe spherical member 24 and socket 40. Ambient air is thus drawn throughthe strands of hair around the roller through the foraminous body 30into the free space 38 and through the strands of hair wound thereonthrough ports 42 into socket member 40 and thus to low pressure conduit4 and hollow cylindrical member 11 to low pressure chamber 7 through lowpressure inlet 6 through low pressure line 2 to the vacuum pump 1. Thehair wound on the roller thus is dried quickly at low temperature tooffer comfort and conveneince to the customer as well as eliminating anypossibility of danger to the hair or the scalp through the use of hightemperatures for prolonged periods.

As is illustrated in FIG. 12, a pin curl is formed conventionally bywrapping a few strands of hair around the finger or other circularobject and is then held in place by means of the specially designedclamps illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10. As shown in FIG. 12, the curl isanchored into position by engagement of lower leg 52 of the clamp 50against the perforate bottom 41 of the socket member 40. Air is thusdrawn through the circlet of hair forming the curl to the center andthence through ports 42 and into low pressure line 4 back to the vacuumpump as previously described.

In practicing my invention, I have found that the vacuum pump can bepowered by a one and one-half horsepower motor and I have designed thehousing so that the low pressure formed in chamber 7 is such that about13 cubic feet of air per minute is drawn through each of the hollowcylindrical members 11 and thus through each of the slidably positionedtubular members 4. Further, this housing 3 is divided between lowpressure chamber 7 and a series of low pressure streams 11 and 4 bymeans of distribution plate 8. The tubular members 4 are preferably madeof material known in the trade as Tygon and it has been found that thismaterial easily slides on a lubricated gasket such as Teflon 25 intosealing engagement so that there is very little leakage between thecylindrical member 11 and the tubular memher 4. The use of the sphericalmember 24 to seat in the socket 40 provides a quick connect anddisconnect since the spherical member 24 is actually drawn or pushedinto place by the outside air and the slidable O ring 23 automaticallysnaps into sealing engagement to prevent leakage at this point. Further,the spherical member 24 is self-aligning in that if a tube is twisted,there is essentially no strain on the roller 30 or cover 34 or on thescalp.

By use of this invention, I have been able to provide comfortable hairdrying with little or no danger to the hair or scalp and have reducedthe drying time from 30 to 45 minutes down to or minutes.

I claim:

1. A method of drying hair comprising the steps of:

(A) forming wet hair into a plurality of individual configurations bywrapping said hair on individual, hollow, foraminous members having.closed ends,

(B) placing a cover element having at least one aperture therein over aportion of each hair configuration and attaching each cover to eachmember,

(C) connecting a source of vacuum to the aperture in each cover elementfor creating a pressure zone lower than the ambient pressure in eachmember and (D') drawing ambient air through each foraminous member intothe thus created low pressure zones and through each cover element tosaid vacuum source so that the wet hair is dried by ambient air.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the rate of ambient air flowthrough each cover member is approximately 13 cubic feet per minute.

3. A hair drying apparatus comprising:

(A) a vacuum pump,

(B) a chamber in communication with said vacuum (C) a plurality oftubular members leading from said chamber and in communicationtherewith,

(D) means for holding a mass of hair to be dried by passage of ambientair therethrough, including:

(1) an elongated radially foraminous hollow cylindrical member having animperforate closure at both ends for rolling a segment of wet hair, and

(E) connecting means for connecting said means for holding a mass ofhair and said tubular members together comprising:

(1) a cover including:

(a) an axially elongated member, generally semicircular in crosssection, and having lateral gripping edges for frictional engagementover said cylindrical member,

(b) a stop for holding said cover in spaced relation from saidcylindrical member except at the point of contact of the lateralgripping edges of said cover,

(c) a second connecting and communicating means located along the axiallength of said cover for connection of said tubular member thereto, andcommunication of said tubular member therewith, and

(d) an aperture in said cover in communication with said connecting andcommunicating means.

4. A hair drying apparatus, as defined in claim 3, in which the secondconnecting and communicating means is in the form of a socket.

5. A hair drying apparatus, as defined in claim 4, the furthercombination therewith of a spherical member connected to the free end ofsaid tubular member for seating in said socket.

6. A hair drying apparatus, as defined in claim 5, the furthercombination therewith of a sealing member slidably located above saidspherical member, on said tubular member for sealing the areasurrounding the point of contact of said spherical member with saidsocket.

7. Apparatus for drying hair comprising:

(A) a vacuum pump,

(B) a housing in communication with said vacuum pump comprising:

( 1) an outer casing,

(2) a distribution plate including a plurality of circular openings,

(3) a plurality of cylindrical members, said cylindrical members beingmounted in airtight connection to said circular openings,

(C) a plurality of flexible tubular members, equal in number to saidnumber of cylindrical members, each of said tubular members having innerend portions slidably mounted in a separate cylindrical member and eachof said tubular members having outer end portions mounted forindependent movement between a retracted position, partially within saidcylindrical member, and an extended position, outside said cylindricalmember,

(D) hair shaping means, detachably connected to said outer end portionsof said tubular members when in extended position, and which are adaptedto be disposed in intimate relation with the hair of a person using theapparatus.

8. Apparatus for drying hair, as defined in claim 7, in

which:

(A) each of said cylindrical members are closed at 4 one end, and

(B) each of said cylindrical members have an open port in the wall nearits closed end,

(C) the further improvement therewith of a gasket mounted on the upperend of each tubular member, so as to be in sealing position with saidport, when the tubular member is in retracted position, and out ofengagement with said port, when the tubular member is in extendedposition.

9. A hair roller for drying hair which comprises:

(A) an elongated radially foraminous hollow cylindrical member having animperforate closure at both ends, for rolling a segment of wet hair,

(B) a cover including:

(1) an axially elongated member, generally semicircular in cross sectionand having lateral gripping edges for frictional engagement over saidcylindrical member, 1

(2) a stop for holding said cover in spaced rela tion from saidcylindrical member except at the point of contact of the lateralgripping edges of said cover,

(3) connecting and communicating means, located along the axial lengthof said cover for connection of a low pressure conduit thereto, andcommunication of said conduit therewith,

(4) an aperture in said cover in communication with said connecting andcommunicating means.

10. A hair roller, as defined in claim 9, in which:

(A) the cross sectional periphery of said cover extends more than andthe lateral gripping edges are in frictional engagement with saidcylindrical member so as to be in close proximity to the scalp.

11. A hair roller, as defined in claim 9, in which the connecting meansis centrally located relative to the ends of said cover.

12. A hair roller, as defined in claim 9, in which:

(A) the connecting and communicating means is in the form of a socket.

13. A hair roller, as defined in claim 9, in which:

(A) the imperforate closure extends over the end of said radiallyforaminous hollow cylindrical member to form a slight ridge around theperipheral edge of 7 s the end of said cylindrical member for engagement2,188,924 2/1940 Rockwood 3497 XR with the lateral gripping edges ofsaid cover. 2,528,335 10/1950 Bottor'f 132-31 2,510,664 6/1950 Shield1329 References g: FOREIGN PATENTS UNITED STATES TENTS 5 977,300 11/1950France.

2,416,788 3/1947 Andrews 34 99 2,456,669 12/1948 Bauer 3499 CARLTON R.CROYLE, Primary Examiner. 2,471,657 5/1949 Saye 3499 2,503,113 4/1950Hribar 34 99 XR 10 ALLAN D. HERRMANN, Asszstant Exammer. 2,585,7352/1952 Bunting 34 99 Us 1,852,933 4/1932 Maier. 2,049,035 7/1936 Wilsey132-36 XR 3492, 98; 1329; 137625-3

